Enterprise collaboration evolution
The effectiveness of collaboration between remote work teams and office-based teams has steadily improved over the last decade. Take an offshore oil and gas facility for example; at the start of my career in the industry, there were still facilities that communicated status reports using fax machine: no joke.
Then came email, audio-only teleconferencing and more recently (circa 2012 onwards) reliable video-based collaboration. Over time, companies have invested in the tech stack for more effective remote collaboration. They’ve improved connectivity, upgraded offices to include dedicated video conferencing facilities with sound bars, AI-enabled cameras and identified optimal collaboration software to suit their needs; they’ve invested in the experience of the remote expert teams who are located in offices.
But what about remote field workers (and experts working remotely)?
The more progressive organizations have gone a step further to invest in the experience of the frontline worker moving beyond smartphones and tablets to wearable computing such as RealWear Inc. head mounted tablets. This investment in the user experience of the field worker has extended the capabilities of remote collaboration to the very edge of an organization where high risk work is performed.
The pandemic no doubt accelerated this and I’ve been fortunate to be involved in over 200 connected work deployments over the last few years. One key observation I have made is the lack of investment in the connected work experience of the subject matter experts who are providing advice to the connected field worker. Yes - it is common to invest in the office setup; but what about the expert that is on the go, traveling, working from anywhere? Since working with the Lenovo ThinkReality A3 AR glasses, it struck me that augmented reality may be the critical piece of the puzzle required to optimize the remote collaboration experience for the expert.
AR glasses for remote collaboration
The Lenovo ThinkReality A3 when tethered to the Motorola Edge30+ smartphone provides the remote expert with virtual screens that display either 2D or 3D content in 3D space. After a few use case ideation sessions with colleagues and some basic testing in my home office, I figured there was impressive utility for the expert working from anywhere. Time to do some field testing...And whenever I want to pressure test a new idea, Simon Cruthers from Behemoth Industrial Technology Solutions is always willing to lend an ear and curious mind. So a few weeks ago we put the idea to the test. Enter...The Augmented Expert.
The Augmented Expert
The Augmented Expert definition
/ˈɔːɡˈmɛntɪd ɛkspəːt/
noun
1 . a person who is very knowledgeable about or skillful in a particular area supported by augmented reality to improve the access and effectiveness of transferring that knowledge/skill to others
Augmented Expert Proof of Concept | Field test at HCS
Use Case Scenario: A field service technician is required to install a MOVUS FitMachine condition monitoring sensor on a pump at HCS (international oil services company). The field service tech is using a RealWear Navigator 500 head-mounted-tablet to live-stream their camera feed to the Augmented Expert using Librestream Onsight Connect. The Augmented Expert (me in this instance) is traveling between locations and doesn't have a laptop handy*; instead carries Lenovo ThinkReality A3 AR smart glasses and a Moto Edge30+ phone.
The Augmented Expert is able to pull up three virtual screens while working from anywhere (see photo):
- Screen 1 (photo right): RealWear Navigator 500 live video feed from the field service technician through the Librestream Onsight Connect application (this could equally be any other remote collaboration software such as MS Teams, Zoom etc.)
- Screen 2 (photo center): Real-time dashboard with data from the MOVUS FitMachine IIoT condition monitoring sensor
- Screen 3 (photo left): A 3D model of the equipment where the FitMachine condition monitoring sensor is being installed (this could equally be a P&ID, data sheet or any other supporting technical documentation)
Example image of ThinkReality A3 glasses screens viewed by The Augmented Expert
*When using a laptop on the go, the remote expert is constrained to the single laptop screen. With the Lenovo ThinkReality A3 PC edition - the AR glasses can be connected to the laptop and can provide up to 8 virtual screens (Up to 5 or 8 based on hardware specs)
The outcome
The Augmented Expert is an investment in the user experience for Subject Matter Experts (SME's) working from anywhere. Digital multi-tasking is the most difficult aspect of providing subject matter expertise when located outside the office.
Accessing several virtual screens in real-time during remote collaboration calls unlocks significant utility to provide effective advice from anywhere.
The gold standard for assisted and augmented collaboration has now been set; time to raise the bar.
This article was first published on LinkedIn
